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Kelly Preston is returning to the world of series TV with the lead role in ABC's comedy pilot "Keep Calm and Karey On."

Preston will star as Karey, the straight arrow in a family of petty thieves, drug addicts and narcissists. When her brother is sent to prison, she adopts his two children in an attempt to give them a better life.

If the pilot is picked up to series, it would mark Preston's first full-time TV commitment since her role as an oversexed teenager in NBC's short-lived '80s Army base soap "For Love and Honor." She was in the cast of HBO's 2008 pilot for British TV adaptation "Suburban Shootout," but that was not picked up.

Two months into his new deal at Sony TV, Barry Sonnenfeld has set up projects at three broadcast networks and has several more lined up on the runway.

The producer-director's TV slate includes an adaptation of the Argentinean drama series "The Pretenders" for Fox, with writer Jorge Zamacona; a superhero family show for ABC with feature writer Peter Steinfeld and Dee Steinfeld; and "My World, and Welcome to It," a comedy at CBS with "Frasier" writer Jay Kogen.

"All the shows have a certain amount of tonal quirkiness to them, which is where I come in," Sonnenfeld said.

In additional to exec producing the projects, Sonnenfeld is planning to direct as many as his feature schedule allows.

"Because all the shows are very tonal specific, the most important job for the producer and the director is to set and maintain the tone," he said.

Based on the BBC series, "Mistresses," from Fox 21, revolves around a quartet of thirtysomething women who have been friends since college.

Combs ("Charmed") will play Jane, who gave up her career to be a stay-at-home mom. Burns ("Miss Guided") will play Shannon, an outspoken and sharp attorney. Aytes ("Drive") will play Ava, a bright and spunky soap star.

Combs is repped by Gersh and Precision Entertainment. Aytes is repped by Innovative and attorney Jeff Endlich.

"Suburban," which also is based on a British series, is a dark comedy about Rebecca (Judy Greer) who escapes the city for suburban bliss only to find herself caught between two rival gangs of homicidal housewives as they vie for control of their idyllic town.

Weaver ("Notes From the Underbelly") will play Rebecca's husband and new chief of police of the suburban town. He is repped by the Kohner Agency.

Birdsong ("Reno 911!") will play a member of one of the gangs. She is repped by Uta and manager Stacey Abrams.

The three will executive produce with Eileen Gallagher, co-creator of the original series and CEO of Shed Prods., which produced Bad Girls for ITV.

The drama, which bowed out in 2006 after eight seasons, revolves around the staff and inmates of a women's prison.

Co-created by Gallagher, Maureen Chadwick and Ann McManus, Bad Girls has been praised for its portrayal of the complex relationships among female inmates. Its U.S. rights previously were held by FX.

Women's prisons as a setting and foreign formats are hot this year. Fox is developing a spinoff of Prison Break that would take place at a female prison. The broadcast networks recently added seven new scripted series based on international formats. HBO adapted the Israeli series In Treatment and is shooting a pilot based on the U.K.'s Suburban Shootout.

Bad Girls is among the first pieces of development for HBO's new entertainment president Sue Naegle.

Based on the critically praised British series, Shootout is a dark comedy about a woman (Greer) who escapes the city for suburban bliss only to find herself caught between two rival gangs of homicidal housewives as they vie for control of their idyllic town.

For Greer, Suburban is formally in second position to the ABC comedy Miss Guided, which hasn't been renewed for a second season. Producer 20th TV's options on the cast of the midseason series expire June 30.

Based on the British series, the Barry Sonnenfeld-directed Suburban is a dark comedy about a woman who escapes the city for suburban bliss only to find herself caught between two rival gangs of homicidal housewives vying for control of the town. Preston will play Camilla, the formidable leader of one of the gangs. She joins the previously cast Kerri Kenney and Rachael Harris.

Unusuals, from Sony, is a dramedy set at a New York police precinct. Goldberg will play Delahoy, a detective who has a brain tumor that no one else knows about.

In Wife, a follow-up to the high-rated miniseries, Nicolet will play a new friend of Molly's (Messing) who is a parent and the wife of a Los Angeles pro athlete.

The Marc Buckland-directed Never Better, from ABC Studios, centers on a guy (Wayans) trying to be a good husband and father despite his somewhat misguided attempts.

Wayans' casting lifts the contingency on the project. For five seasons, Wayans starred on the ABC/ABC Studios multicamera comedy My Wife and Kids. He is repped by ICM and attorney Bob Lange.

Motor City, from ABC Studios, is a Gothic family soap inspired by William Shakespeare's Hamlet, which centers on a young Harvard professor forced to return to Detroit and take over the family's auto company.

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